‘So You Want to be a Rock ’n’ Roll Star’ Auteurs and stars

At the pinnacle of the success continuum discussed in Chapter 3, are stars and auteurs. Following an introduction to these two concepts; I provide a number of case studies

of such fi gures in popular music, with reference to examples of their work: bluesman Robert Johnson, in the 1930s; producer Phil Spector and his ‘wall of sound’ in the early 1960s; rock band The Who, and Pete Townshend, their lead guitarist and primary songwriter; iconoclast Frank Zappa; the Spice Girls and manufactured pop; country crossover star Shania Twain; and dance DJ and remixer Fatboy Slim, in the late 1990s. In each profi le, with brief reference to their career, I want to situate these performers in terms of their infl uence and status, and in relation to issues of creativity and commerce, genre and authorship.